Editorial: Repeal of health reform a bad idea

The new Congress may wind up accomplishing many things, but repealing last year's health-care reform isn't likely, nor should it be, one of them.

Instead, Congress should look to make any fixes as the effects of this sweeping law, much of which hasn't even been implemented yet, become apparent.

The new House of Representatives does seem intent on voting next week to scrap the health-care law, even though that law ultimately could provide coverage for tens of millions of Americans without health-care coverage — and is designed to stop insurance companies from denying people coverage because of pre-existing conditions.

"It's not like we haven't litigated this for over a year," says new House Speaker John Boehner, defending the decision to take this vote without holding any further hearings.

So be it. The House of Representatives may, indeed, have the votes to pass this measure, and the mid-Hudson Valley's two new congressional representatives — Republicans Nan Hayworth and Chris Gibson — have repeatedly voiced their support for repeal. The area's returning congressman, Maurice Hinchey, is against such an action.

Fortunately, abolishing the health-care law isn't likely to pass the U.S. Senate, where Democrats are still in control and where its leader, Harry Reid, vows to preserve it, though he is open to some "tweaking."

To that end, Republicans have put forth some good new ideas over the years and during this last campaign that should be considered. Those changes include instituting tort reform to allowing people to buy insurance across state lines. For sure, Congress should get rid of the provision requiring businesses to file information returns for transactions involving as little as $600, something even the Internal Revenue Service says isn't enforceable.

But repealing the health-care law and reverting to a system under which the 50 states can have such varied arrangements doesn't seem terribly effective and, actually, has proven quite inefficient over the decades; health-care costs have grown far beyond the rate of inflation and coverage is financially out of reach for far too many.

Even supporters of health-care reform recognized when the law was passed that no measure of that magnitude was going to be perfect, that it would subject to change once the impacts were known.

In so many ways, the jury is still out. For instance, state-based purchasing pools known as exchanges won't take effect until 2014. For many Democrats, exchanges were a compromise from implementing what they really wanted — either a total government takeover of the health-care system or the creation of a public option for people to buy health insurance.

Going back to square one would make little sense at this point. Ultimately, compromise will be necessary here.

ADVERTISEMENT

Most Popular

Most Commented

More Headlines

Most Viewed

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Editorial: Repeal of health reform a bad idea

The new Congress may wind up accomplishing many things, but repealing last year's health-care reform isn't likely, nor should it be, one of them.Instead, Congress should look to make any fixes as the